Medicines could rise 5% in 2009

The prices of medicines may grow 5% in 2009, an official of the Medicine Agency, Vladimir Safta, told a news conference Wednesday, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to him, the price hike will be reasoned by higher inflation and on the situation on the world market. “The raw material for medicines may also get more expensive,” Safta opines. According to him, the big producers hoarded in countries as China, India, Germany, Spain and Italy and dominate the market. “When hundreds of manufacturers operate on a free market there are chances for the prices to fall. But since there are monopolies on the market, the producer get the planned price,” says the first deputy manager of the Medicine Agency. Some 90% of the drugs on the Moldovan market are imported. In the first 11 months of the year, the Moldovans consumed some 3,170 tonnes of medicines. In 2007 the consumption reached 3,500 tonnes.